Incheon City Allocates 11.9 Trillion Won in 2021 Main Budget... Focused Investment in 'Incheon-type New Deal'

Incheon City Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City's 2021 budget proposal has been prepared at 11.9399 trillion KRW, an increase of 6.0% compared to this year. It will be focused on addressing current issues such as the Incheon-type 4 major New Deal projects, eco-friendly resource circulation, and revitalization of the old downtown area.

The city announced on the 4th that it submitted the 2021 budget proposal to the city council, emphasizing overcoming the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and a new leap forward for Incheon.

The budget for next year is the largest ever, increasing by 6.0% compared to the 2020 original budget of 11.2617 trillion KRW.

Although the financial conditions are unfavorable due to the slowdown in local tax growth, the city plans to increase the budget size and pursue active financial management considering the difficulties in the local economy caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, 504.5 billion KRW of local bonds will be issued next year (the net increase in local bonds, considering repayments, is 185 billion KRW).

Along with expanding the issuance of local bonds, efforts to restructure expenditure will be carried out simultaneously by cutting administrative expenses and budgets for events and festivals, while expanding participatory budgeting for the realization of fiscal democracy to 290 projects worth 40.2 billion KRW.

Incheon City's debt amount for next year is expected to be 2.1247 trillion KRW, with the debt-to-budget ratio slightly increasing from 16.3% this year to 16.4% next year.

The 2021 budget proposal will focus investment on the rapid promotion of the four Incheon-type New Deal projects?digital, green, bio, and human?as well as enhancing basic urban functions, strengthening citizen safety, revitalizing the local economy, and solving four major regional issues including the revitalization of the old downtown area.

805 billion KRW has been allocated to the Incheon-type 4 major New Deal projects, and 583.9 billion KRW will be invested to enhance basic urban functions such as eco-friendly resource circulation, water supply and sewage, and roads. 417.1 billion KRW is allocated for revitalizing the old downtown area, 163.6 billion KRW for boosting the local economy, and 116.1 billion KRW for COVID-19 recovery and strengthening citizen safety projects.

Incheon Mayor Park Namchun stated, "The year 2021 is a time to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and for the local economy to take off again," adding, "Through the 2021 budget, we will lay the foundation to successfully promote the Incheon-type 4 major New Deal in line with the government's Korean New Deal and achieve tangible results in solving the four major regional issues."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.